It was hard to sleep, even though I was exhausted. For approximately a year and a half I was employed with a small PC manufacturing company, SmacData. Until my supervisor resigned it was a great job. Immediately after he resigned business quadrupled, we landed our first contract to build thousands of PC's. In the past we only built a few hundred PC's a month. This would have been a great opportunity, except for the presidents philosophy to work a few people to death at low wages and then hire fresh pe ople. At this time I had to decide whether to find a better job, quit , or stay and suffer. At first I really made an effort to manage everything, but when there was not a crisis, or constant chaos and production was under control; management thought that was the sign they where not pushing hard enough. In addition they were hiring people with little or no qualifications to assemble and service PC's. Of which I was responsible for the finished quality and the speed of production. I was working long hours seven days a week. It was very difficult to manage and train incompetent, and uninterest ed persons. On top of this some of the new employees would steal computer parts. This created an environment of constant scandal and accusation. If I ran short of worries I would entertain the thought of being accused of stealing and the police taking me away. Other stress creators included the companies habit of selling remanufactured parts as new, often times the quality of these parts was less than used parts. The better part of my job was becoming damage control as a result of these unscrupulous practices. It was at this point that I was losing sleep or not sleeping at all. Another trait of my new coworkers, was that they were very friendly to my face but behind closed doors they would do or say anything in their power to go against me or cause problems.
Even so, most of the time my coworkers where manageable. Management had spent years perfecting the techniques of back stabbing, ways to cause discord, and fighting among employees. All of these issues made me seriously consider resigning. Unemployed I would be unable to pay my bills, and considerable debt. I was living on my own since I started at SmacData. During this same times my parents where in the process of filing for bankruptcy. Since they where in worse financial condition than myself, I felt a tremendous pressure to overcome my problems independently. It would be very difficult to find a job when unemployed. Already I was not eating, or sleeping well and I had grown quiet with a constant melancholy expression. As disagreeab le as my circumstances were I knew unemployment would be worse.
My old supervisor, Syed, was aware of the problems I was having. He was the one who had brought me to SmacData, we had become friends during the time we worked together. I was even renting the basement of his townhouse as an apartment. When we would t alk about my problems at SmacData he would become concerned that stress had really made my mind sick. I needed to recuperate and have time for other parts of life besides work. With my knowledge of technology, technical certification's, and training; we knew I was a candidate for a better position.
Syed resolved to help me find a position with a service oriented company. Some of the problems I was having where unique to SmacData, but many have to do with the nature of a production oriented business.
I have been in a new position for more than a year and a half now. My salary is more than double what it was at Smac and I often do not even work forty hours a week. I work independently now at many different client sights, my skills and confidence gro wing faster than ever. In hindsight I regret not leaving sooner.
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